Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

For a full six days, the Dongchang soldiers attacked everywhere in small teams.

These people didn't waste any words. They just asked whether prices could be lowered. They didn't listen to their many explanations. As long as the answer was no, they would immediately arrest the person and detain him. Their efficiency was very high.

But even so, only more than a hundred shops were checked in six days.

Compared with the areas of many prefectures and counties in Yanzhou Prefecture, a team of more than one hundred people is still too small.

It would take about two months to completely clear the area.

The inventory process was not entirely smooth. Some shops, relying on their backing, dared to fight with the people in charge of checking the accounts from the East Factory, and many of them were injured.

Of course, Tian Jingwen would not tolerate those businessmen, and he immediately sent more people to arrest all the attackers.

He informed the Rencheng Guard of Yanzhou Prefecture and hoped that the soldiers of the guard would go to Yanzhou to maintain order. After all, the implementation of national policies was promoted by the Grand Marshal of the Army.

I thought these garrison soldiers would help, but in the end the garrison commander refused, citing spring plowing as an excuse.

Not only that, someone from Prince Lu's mansion came yesterday and scolded him in a very arrogant manner, saying that he would write a memorial to the emperor to impeach him for his arrogance and domineering behavior that harmed the people in the village.

He was also threatened to release He Jinzai immediately, and if he dared to touch the royal family's property again, he would be suppressed by the Prince of Lu's Mansion.

Tian Jingwen did not care much about the impeachment threat from the Prince of Lu's Mansion. In the court, there were the Inspector General and the Grand Marshal who were very observant and would certainly not let those who were working outside feel disheartened.

What Tian Jingwen was really worried about was that the Prince of Lu's Mansion was openly resisting the price adjustment.

He was not really afraid of the Prince Lu's Mansion, but he was outnumbered here with only about 130 subordinates.

Although the prefectural government did not dare to act rashly due to the threat from the Eastern Depot, it could only pretend to be friendly with him and act like a fence-sitter.

Although the Nalu Palace had no military power, its palace guards alone had three hundred people.

If the Prince of Lu's Palace really obstructed it, Tian Jingwen was worried that it would slow down the implementation of the national policy.

Tian Jingwen is a veteran of the Dongjishichang. As early as eleven years ago, when the current emperor had not yet abolished the Dongchang, he was one of the managers of the Dongchang.

Restoring the former glory of the East Factory was one of the reasons, but the reason why he dared not neglect this matter was the trust of the governor.

Before going to the capital this time, the governor had guaranteed in front of everyone that if this matter could be accomplished, everyone from top to bottom would receive a considerable sum of money according to their positions.

In addition to this, there will be compensation for the wounded and even more for the dead. It is said that this was agreed upon by the Grand Marshal and the Governor. The dead will be treated like soldiers who died in battle. Not only will their families receive a one-time pension, but they will also be exempted from land tax until the deceased's children grow up.

Everyone knows that the enemy this time is no small fry. Not only is it very united, but it also has strong financial strength, which is no less than a war.

In order to boost morale, the governor and dozens of supervisors, including Tian Jingwen, swore an oath of blood in front of the statue of Yue Fei in the East Factory Yamen, vowing that they would never give up or compromise until their goal was achieved!

Rewards and pensions are almost always given at the maximum amount, of course, where there are rewards there are punishments.

In order to ensure the records, each team of more than 100 people in charge of the squad had not only five Jinyiwei responsible for monitoring the records, but also the guards and the captains could report on each other. Once the report was found to be true, the person reported would be severely punished and the reporter would be rewarded half of the penalty.

Fang Zhenghua was extremely cautious in recruiting personnel, and all the recruits were from decent families. Their identities, hometowns, and family situations were all recorded. If anyone dared to betray his own people, not only would he be punished personally, but his entire family would also suffer.

It’s not that Fang Zhenghua is too harsh, but the enemy they are about to face is the most difficult. According to the words of the Grand Marshal, this is a group of people who almost control the economic lifeline of the Ming Dynasty.

What this group of people are best at using is sugar-coated bullets. They have power, money and food. If they cannot enforce strict discipline, how many of them can withstand such a test?

Not to mention anything else, in the past three days alone, there were dozens of people who came to Tian Jingwen to offer bribes. Among them were officials from Yanzhou Prefecture, merchants, and the bosses behind the merchants.

The bribe amount ranged from a few dozen taels to several hundred taels. When Prince Lu visited the palace for the first time, he directly threw out a silver note for two thousand taels.

With his current salary, even if he worked hard for a hundred years he would not be able to earn several thousand taels of silver.

If he is like this, his subordinates will certainly fall into the same temptation. Fortunately, they have the responsibility to report on each other and the supervision of the Jinyiwei, so no black sheep has been found in his team for the time being.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Tian Jingwen interrogated Captain Li alone. From Captain Li, he learned about many scandals between officials of Yanzhou Prefecture and local merchants, and even involved officials of Shandong Provincial Government.

He recorded these things but did not make them public, nor did he rashly arrest corrupt officials such as Chang Bizhen.

There were too many obstacles, and he couldn't make more enemies. Even though he knew that Chang Bi Zheng was not a good official, he had to endure it for the time being.

He knew that the officials of Yanzhou Prefecture certainly did not want Captain Li to be alive, so he secretly took a number of precautions.

On the second night after Li Ping was arrested, some of Li's family members went to visit him in prison under the pretext of delivering food. They designed a way to get the guards away, intending to kill Li Ping directly.

Fortunately, Tian Jingwen was careful and ordered his men to secretly unlock Captain Li's shackles.

Captain Li was not stupid. He knew that Chang Bi Zheng and the others would not let him go, so he did not dare to sleep too deeply at night.

As soon as the two so-called family members entered the prison with knives in their hands, Captain Li took the initiative and strangled them to death on the spot with iron chains.

When the first plan failed, two days ago, those people took advantage of his absence to send poisoned food and wine to him. Captain Li was also a ruthless man. He would rather eat stale cold rice than eat delicacies such as roast goose.

By this morning, after two consecutive failures, Chang Bizhen was at his wit's end and came directly to him. Not only did he take out a full three thousand taels of silver notes, he also promised to fully cooperate with him in punishing the merchants, on the condition that he would not hold the officials of Yanzhou Prefecture accountable.

If it were according to his usual character, he would have executed Chang Bizhen on the spot, but he remembered the governor's expectations and finally endured it.

The collusion between officials and businessmen is very serious, and they are extremely united. If Chang Bi Zheng is executed on the spot, it will not only be of no help to the implementation of national policies, but will also make officials and businessmen more united.

But if Chang Bi Zheng could act as an insider, it would be much easier to deal with the merchants. After the matter was accomplished, all the corrupt officials in Yanzhou Prefecture could be caught in one fell swoop. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

As for that deal, it's just a stopgap measure. As long as the task can be completed, who cares about the process?

His Excellency the Grand Marshal once said that when you kill someone, you must destroy his heart.

Alas, I just hope that support from the capital can arrive as soon as possible. It’s already been five days.

The express horses from the Eastern Depot probably delivered the letter for help to the capital three days ago, but no one knows where it is now.

But it only happened in the past two days.

Tian Jingwen thought for a long time, when suddenly a subordinate came running in from outside the door.

"Captain Tian, it's bad, the guards from Prince Lu's Palace have surrounded our people!"

Tian Jingwen frowned immediately, thinking that the Prince of Lu was really going to be the first one to be blamed by those merchants.

"Come with me and take a look."

After saying this, Tian Jingwen put on his sword and went out.